This invention relates to vascular graft stenosis. About 400,000 patients undergo aorta-coronary artery bypass graft surgery annually in the United States. Unfortunately, the grafts often require subsequent intervention because of the development of hemodynamically significant lesions on the lumenal side of the intima, which is the innermost layer of the artery. The occlusion in the artery resulting from the lesion is known as a stenosis. Within two years of the surgery, up to 30% of vein grafts develop stenosis. Ten years after surgery, stenosis has occurred in approximately 50% of vein grafts.
The factors involved in causing graft stenosis are largely unknown, and there is a lack of an adequate animal model for characterizing graft stenosis.